Today’s communities offer little protection

March 11, 2012

It's a sad reality of today's world, especially here in the Eastern Panhandle, that we don't really know our neighbors - some not well, some not at all.

That missing sense of neighborhood leaves us vulnerable to burglars such as those arrested this week by local law enforcement officials. Area police agencies arrested 10 people who have been linked to approximately 25 burglaries in the Eastern Panhandle, as well as surrounding states. Police recovered $70,000 in stolen property - items belonging to our neighbors. The bulk of the solved burglaries happened between December and March in Berkeley, Morgan and Jefferson counties, as well as in Frederick County, Va., and Frederick County, Md.

The cases are frightening: Criminals drive up to a home in the middle of the day, kick in a door or window, enter the home and leave with pillow cases full of stolen loot.

For those of a certain age, such burglaries are hard to imagine. We grew up during a different era, a time when you knew your neighbors and their family and friends. Neighbors socialized and shared weekends, holidays and special occasions. They helped each other, watched for suspicious characters and kept an eye on all the neighborhood kids.

Burglars had less chance of robbing a house in those neighborhoods than a resident did of having a private conversation on a four-party telephone line. It just wasn't going to happen.

Those days are gone.

Today, how many of us have met our neighbors' friends and family??Do we know what vehicles are regularly parked at their homes? Do we know if they have a lawn service or repairman scheduled? Do we have a key to their house??How many of us are even sure where our neighbors work or have their contact numbers in case of emergencies? Sadly, in many cases, we don't even know their names, sometimes after living in the same neighborhood for years.

Instead of counting on each other, we need the police to keep us safe.

This week, officials from Berkeley, Jefferson and Morgan counties, Maryland and Virginia did an outstanding job, working together on these arrests.

Unfortunately, there is still work to be done. "I'd like to warn the public that we do have a number of arrests and a lot of cases that may be getting closed out, but we still have the threat that burglaries still may be occurring here today," Berkeley County Sheriff Kenneth "Kenny" Lemaster Jr. said following the burglary arrests.

Lemaster and the other law enforcement officials will do their best, but, at some point, we, as residents and neighbors, must take steps to ensure our communities are safe.